As of tomorrow, there is one week remaining, and this round of politics as usual – with the largest amount of money ever spent, and no reason to think it won’t grow again in 2016 – will be over. Unless there’s a split in electoral and popular votes, and then it will be a while longer, and probably get even meaner, uglier and divisive than it already is. When it’s done, one side of the Two Party System will win, and they will rejoice. The victorious WH candidate will thank all his supporters, bask in their cheers, and then somberly declare the necessity of, and his willingness to work toward, bringing “this great nation of ours” together as we face the challenges ahead as only USA! USA! can do such things. On the other side will be cries of dismay and anger, probably as loud as the rejoicing, accompanied by mutters about mid-terms and even more mutters about 2016.
My top-of-the-ticket vote won’t be for The Winner. Green Party candidates Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala won’t defeat the Duopoly, nor will any other “third” party ticket. They can’t. The system is designed to keep Republicans and Democrats in power. So far, that’s working quite well for them. How well it is, or isn’t, working for the people is another question, and different people have different answers.
Anyway, I know my Green Party vote won’t help elect the next president. But it will not be “wasted.” It won’t be a “vote for Romney,” or even a “vote against Obama.” It will be my vote for the candidates whose position and policy statements most closely meet my own. I respect the choices others make about what they do with their votes. I know – mostly through emails and Facebook postings – that a good number of them are tired of hearing about third parties, the Duopoly, Oligarchy, Plutocracy, etc. I understand that, since I’m tired of decades of listening to why I “must vote Democratic,” since I’m liberal.
Here’s the thing, though, for all of us, wherever we are on the political continuum: if we don’t talk about our concerns and ways of addressing them, the Republican and Democratic parties have even less reason to listen to voters than they already do. We need to keep finding, creating ways to communicate, have actual conversations, not each retire to our section on the continuum and just talk to like-minded people, and complain about those who think differently. I’m guessing we all have things to learn about how to do that. I know I do.
For now, a few reasons I will vote Green Party (and more basically yet, why I’m liberally independent):
1. The fatal flaws and failings of the two party system. I use “fatal” deliberately, because policies made by both Democratic and Republican parties bring harm in multiple ways, including death, nationally and internationally, via such things as a) wars; b) kill lists; c) increasing homeland security resulting in loss of civil liberties, including increasing levels of “police state” law enforcement; d) increasing degree of income inequality, and so of poverty; e) a general indifference, or worse, to the environment, including: climate change, fracking, leaks from deep sea oil drilling and petroleum pipelines, as well as noxious materials in other industries; introduction of chemicals and other toxic materials into the food chain; f) in general, increasing corporate control of policy and governance. Those are just some of the worst and most obvious.
2. The Green Party issues positions, as I said earlier, is closest to my own thinking.
3. The need to challenge and change the two party system, including the Electoral College, is essential. That kind of challenge requires outside forces. It also requires inside forces, as I’ve repeatedly written, and I respect and am grateful for those doing that work. My perspective is from the outside. I’ll keep saying that, too.
Conversations, talking with each other from varying points of view, are welcomed. I think we can learn that way, and maybe even come up with more and better ideas.
(Green Party Stein & Honkala via JillSteinFB)
Good for you, so am I.
I knew I was in good company
Moi aussi!!
It will be my vote for the candidates whose position and policy statements most closely meet my own.
What better reason is there than this?
I’ve already early voted here in South Carolina for The Greens. Domestically (which is the overriding issue for me and many), they address a solid amount of what concerns me. I don’t agree with all of their positions but I agree with them MUCH MORE than the Democrats and Republicans.
And I’m praying to Falcor the Luck Dragon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Neverending_Story_characters#Falkor_the_Luck_Dragon) that we have an electoral tie. I want the electoral college drawn and quartered.
I want the electoral college drawn and quartered.
Amen.
Amen. Amen.
i plan to early vote in the next couple of days. Actually, I’d planned to do so before now, but somehow life stuff keeps getting in the way.
I don’t agree with the Greens on every thing, either, but as I say, they come closest. I’d be quite happy if several of the “third” parties would gain votes.
I had to wait in line for two hours to vote on Saturday, the first day of early voting here in Maryland.
Rachel Maddow just complained that the lines seem to very long at early voting sites. I’m sorry, but that’s a really stupid complaint- states can’t really afford to run early voting the same way they operate election day. There aren’t going to be nearly as many voting sites or judges or poll workers during early voting, because election day is an expensive proposition and nobody wants to pay for two weeks of election days every four years. Jeesh Rachel, I love you and all, but sometimes your whining really goes a bit too far.
What’s also interesting about what you and others are commenting about re: Green Party is that gender has nothing to do with it even though both people on the ticket are WOMEN, which I must say is great to see.
Never had a problem supporting women in politics that I agree with. Equal footing with the fellas.
Of course gender has nothing to do with the Green Party, and for that matter nothing else has anything to do with it. Nobody is paying any attention to any of the third party candidates, they are a non-issue. A few people will feel better about their vote, and when the election is over the green party will disappear until the next election when they will run another candidate for president. I remember when Nader was their candidate and they where all over the place. They said they were around for the long hall trying to get candidates to run for local office and really trying to make a change. After the election we never heard from the green party again. This is the problem with these third parties, they lose their steam and support and fade into the woodwork.
Blah blah blah…. I prefer to believe that if enough send a message, things might change in the future… even if it did not happen with Nader. Many are saying enough is enough!
Many are saying? I would say a few are saying. My girl works at the UofM and we spend a lot of time around the coffee shops around campus, and sure don’t hear much from students about third party politics. Less the 1% of voters will be voting third party.
Well, then what are you bitching about? If we are so insignificant, why are you “getting your panties in a bunch” (your phrase, from an earlier thread) over our choice?
You also like to say “I don’t understand….” and then respond “blah blah blah” when you get an explanation you don’t like. Here’s what I don’t understand- why it is so important to you that we fall in line, since our numbers are too small to be significant anyway. Why do you care so much who we vote for? Do you get some pleasure out of this “you can’t win” sneering?
You are voting for Obama. We get it. He’s probably going to win, I hope you have champagne ready. Some of us aren’t going to vote for Obama. Your snippy demands for explanations that you won’t accept aren’t going to convince us to do otherwise, and our votes don’t matter anyway- so what is your problem?
Your girl???
Sorry, just stating your “girl” sounded a bit condescending to me, but perhaps that is just me (maybe she likes it). Certainly third party candidates are not getting as much attention as they should, but do you really think the opinions of college students from one university represent what you should be basing your opinion(s) on? Let alone, only those that you happen to engage in conversation or eavesdrop upon while at select coffee shops around this one campus? That is a MINUTE and BIASED sample. Living in Portland, Or, with a husband that is a professor at a University in a very liberal city…. well, suffice it to say I would never think that what he hears at campus coffee shops, or from his students, are representative of what is happening in this country. Certainly third parties have a long way to go… I just hope they can get enough votes in this election to energize them. On this blog, Joyce is doing well in this department.
Third parties have the deck stacked against them across the board, especially in the national media.
Corporations make it worse because they don’t back more than one loser at a time.
The biggest issue with 3rd parties is infrastructure even if they could win. There is none to support them inside Congress or locally to rise, so every four years they rise and fall quickly, even if they live on in smaller races.
It doesn’t make the effort of yourself and others less important.
Maybe you just haven’t been paying attention. The Green Party runs local candidates from coast to coast in non-Presidential years. And it’s been around for quite some time now. Nader was the worst possible candidate for the Greens 12 years ago, because it was all about Nader and not the issues, but that’s not the Green party of today.
“After the election we never heard from the green party again.” Which election? Yes, third parties lose steam after elections, when they don’t win- what is your point? They stick around- there’s probably a Green Party in your community you could join, if you were willing to do something other than sneer and snark.
Maybe that’s the real problem- you keep waiting for someone to take you by the hand and lead you somewhere. If they don’t, you yawn and dismiss and see what else is on. How about considering becoming part of the solution, instead of the problem? Sure, it takes a little more energy than snarking on a blog does (and you seem to expend quite a bit of energy calling people condescending and “lacking credibility” here) but it’s actually productive.
jjamele, you have no idea what I do or what I’m involved in. You assume you have all the answers and the rest of us are just lost. You accuse me of calling people condescending and lacking credibility because I happen to not agree with someone who calls themselves enlightened and left wing stating that he hopes the right wing and Romney/Ryan win.
Also, I live in Keith Ellisons district, so we don’t see the Green Party around, and since Nader they had little input in Minneapolis politics.
I don’t accuse you of calling people condescending and lacking credibility, that’s what you do- two people, in fact, in the last week. What you mean is, they lack credibility with YOU. And as for condescending- I don’t see anyone else griping about the decision of some people to use their votes to support someone other than a major party candidate and sneering that those minor parties “just disappear.” Physician, Heal Thyself.
Oh and by the way- Keith Ellison’s district is not the Universe. You might want to take a peek at the rest of the country from time to time.
Joyce, good for you; at the end of the day, you will look into the mirror knowing the truth. Now that Obama has clearly stated that his top priority in his second term is to reduce budget deficits, while stating in the third debate that sequestration would not occur, (sparing the defense budget at the expense of discretionary spending. Who determined that feeding, educating, and providing medical care to American citizens is optional and war is mandatory?), I will clearly state that I hope Obama will lose to Mitt Romney.
I oppose history recording that another Democratic president ended the remaining vestiges of FDR’s New Deal. Has conservatives stopped reminding the left that Bill Clinton ended welfare as we knew it; repealed Glass-Steagall, signed into law NAFTA and the 1996 Telecommunications Act, to the long-term detriment of America. I refuse to provide with my vote protection to the very forces that openly want to invalidate my values and principles and harm my country.
“I refuse to provide with my vote protection to the very forces that openly want to invalidate my values and principles and harm my country.” I love that, TPAZ. Very well said.
I’m appalled that someone who I guess thinks they are progressive, left wing, liberal would hope Romney and the right wing republicans would win just to prove some point. I understand voting for someone who is left wing instead of voting for the same old democratic party, but to hope the right wing wins because your candidate doesn’t have a chance does not make sense.
Real people are suffering, women are being attacked, seniors fear losing medicare and medicaid, the poor are getting poorer, and you who call yourself a progressive left winger who would hope that the poor, women and seniors suffer even more under a Romney/Ryan right wing agenda just because your pissed at Obama and democrats. I don’t get it.
“Real people are suffering, women are being attacked, seniors fear losing medicare and medicaid, the poor are getting poorer…),
Obama’s silence and acquiescence is the reason for the successful assault by conservatives; this is why things will not improve in an Obama second term, only worsen, cloaked in compromise. If you believe things will move to the left in Obama’s second term you are delusional.
I don’t know how much Obama would compromise in a second term, but I do know what Romney/Ryan would like to do, and it will be a hell of a lot worse. I know Obama won’t try to overturn Roe v Wade, I know he won’t appoint right wing judges to the supreme court, I know he won’t try to privatize medicare/medicaid, he won’t kill planned parenthood, he won’t try to kill unions, he won’t cut PAL grants or raise interest on student loans and he won’t kill FEMA.
You don’t know anything. I know that when it comes time to get enough votes to pass a piece of legislation Obama will be twisting arms on the left not arms on the right to compromise.
Obama was SILENT on unions in Wisconsin… remember? As TPAZ states, we have no idea what he will do. I am tired of those making excuses for him. Obama does whatever is politically convenient for him.
Blah, blah blah. You respond back to my comment but all you do is tell me how evil and bad Obama is. I see you didn’t refute anything I said when it came to what a Romney/Ryan white house would do to this country.
Start Quote
“I know Obama won’t try to overturn Roe v Wade, I know he won’t appoint right wing judges to the supreme court, I know he won’t try to privatize medicare/medicaid, he won’t kill planned parenthood, he won’t try to kill unions, he won’t cut PAL grants or raise interest on student loans and he won’t kill FEMA.”
End Quote
I agree with most of this. Obama has proven that is no friend of Unions so he might not try to kill them overtly, but based on his distancing himself from the Wisconsin debacle, I take that as a sign that if others try to kill unions, Obama will stand by passively and let whatever happens happen. In other words, I don’t expect him to do anything extraordinary to save the unions. He is not a champion for unions. He has his nose way too far up the collective asses of the corporations, but I digress…
It has been said that we survived 8 years of Bush (we have now survived 4 years of Obama) and that we can survive however many years of Romney/Ryan we get should they be elected.
I only partially agree with that. There are many who will survive but if Willard & Ayn Rand, Jr. embrace austerity and cut even deeper than we have already (and I suspect they will), I believe there are many elderly and poor who will not survive a Romney/Ryan administration.
Just my humble opinion.
I already voted green in early voting. That is the only way for my vote to mean something to me. America’s penchant for either/or voting (when policy-wise, nothing changes anyway) just makes us look stupid. The idea that each major party has spent billions on this presidential election is just obscene!
“Obscene” works for me, in describing the money being spent.
I know someone who “proudly” donated $25 to the Obama campaign. I wonder what that money was used for. Maybe one of the waiters at a $30,000 per plate fundraiser got a nice tip out of it.